Learning from History
Hurffville Elementary School Principal Gives Lesson on 9/11 to School’s Fifth-Graders
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – September 11, 2019, started out looking much like September 11, 2011. Blue skies, sun shining, kids getting ready for schools, buses humming around Washington Township. The similarities, however, stopped there.
“What were you doing at 9:03 a.m. today?” Hurffville Elementary School Principal Jeff Pollock asked one of the fifth-graders in Mrs. Tracy Colligan’s social studies class on Wednesday.
“Probably riding the bus to school,” the student responded.
Pollock quickly segued into what happened at 9:03 a.m. 18 years ago. That was the time when the second World Trade Center tower in New York City was struck by terrorists, who had hijacked jet airliners and were using them to attack the United States. The fifth-graders in the classroom would not even be born for another eight years, but Pollock likes to personally talk to them each year on the anniversary of 9/11 to give them some perspective on what it was like to live through history.
In 2001, Pollock was Principal at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. By 9:03 a.m., once he knew about the attacks, Pollock quickly had to make decisions on how to approach school that day. He had about 15 minutes to figure it out.
“We decided immediately to keep all TVs off and not talk about what was going on with the students,” Pollock said. “We didn’t want them to get scared. Throughout the day, kids were getting pulled out of school by their parents and the other students were asking what was going on. But we didn’t tell anyone anything. We thought, as a District, it was best for them to have that dialogue with their families.”
As part of the presentation on Wednesday, Pollock showed an eight-minute, age-appropriate video detailing the events of the day. He gave some background about the terrorist plot and detailed how heroic the passengers of Flight 93 were, forcing themselves into the cockpit to fight the terrorists and potentially avoiding an even worse tragedy.
Pollock and Colligan talked about what they told their own children, who were young at the time, about what was happening. Pollock’s son, Stephen, was in second grade and had visited the World Trade Center a week before the attacks.
“I told him, ‘Some bad guys flew planes into the Twin Towers and knocked them down. But the army is going to get them, and everything is going to be OK’,” Pollock said. “And his response was, ‘Oh, OK. Can I go play with my friends outside?’ That was all he needed.”
As fifth-graders, however, Pollock said they were old enough to better understand the events of that day. And equally able to live their lives in a way that keeps situations like that from happening again.
“We study history not just to learn, but also to learn how to not repeat the bad parts,” Pollock said. “This is history. This is something you can make better. Do your own part. Be kind. We can start that right here in our own classrooms, right? Let’s make the world a better place.”
Throughout the presentation, Pollock asked the students questions and shaped some of what he said to their responses. Some talked about having visited the Flight 93 Memorial. Others had been to the 9/11 Museum in New York. But for the most part, the students were content to listen and learn. When Pollock was finished, Colligan handed out thank you cards to each of students intended to be written out for local first responders.
- WTPS -